Those Who Fall
by Solus Tal'echoy
Summary: To those who fall, arise and walk. For those who are lost may yet find their way. UP FOR ADOPTION.


**_A/N: _**_I was trying to hold off on this until I at least finished 'Harry Potter and the Explosive Solution,' but it's hard to ignore a plot bunny when it's trying to eat your face, so I might as well feed it and turn it loose on you guys. Enjoy._

_Me: I think I'll let Sirius do the dislaimer.  
>Sirius: Why do I have to do it?<br>Me: Would you prefer I left you dead?  
>Sirius: Not particularly, no.<br>Me: Well then, better start talking.  
>Sirius: *sighs* Solus Tal'echoy does not own Harry Potter or Fullmetal Alchemist.<br>Me: Good boy!_

_Edit: This is the second version of this chapter, as Pajaro Negro and SilenceBeckoning were kind enough to point out the slip-up with Al, so I rewrote the second half to make it flow better._

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><p>The feeling when you were hit with a killing curse wasn't exactly easy to describe, but if Sirius had to sum it up in one word, that word would probably be <em>'numb.'<em>

Or maybe a better word would be _'empty,'_ because he wasn't just numb. All of his senses were muted. He didn't see Bellatrix making a hasty exit from the chamber, or hear his godson screaming his name, or feel his body falling through the veil. There was nothing, and there was everything.

He couldn't move, but he could see pure white surrounding him, and some sort of doorway. He could hear laughter, and the voice sounded like his, but at the same time sounding nothing like it. He floated for a lifetime, and only for a moment.

And suddenly there was sky above him, the bluest he had ever seen, dotted with clouds. There was hard stone below him. He was so amazed at feeling again that it took a moment to realize how excrutiatingly cold it was. And now he could register the voices around him.

"The hell? Where'd he come from?"

"Is he Drachman?"

"He could be a spy."

"How'd he get past our scouts?"

"Clothes are too thin, he'll get frostbite."

"Get him inside, we can't interrogate a frozen corpse."

Sirius caught a glimpse of an man large enough to almost be mistaken for Hagrid, though he wasn't nearly as hairy as the half-giant. Then he couldn't see at all due to the black bag shoved over his head.

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><p>"First that <em>thing<em> comes out of that underground tunnel, and now this?" General Armstrong marched into the infirmiry to see the man in question wrapped in blankets. She was glad to see that the men had been wise enough to put him in restraints as well. "I am Major General Armstrong. I want to know who are, why you're here, and how you got past our defenses."

The man held up the board keeping his hands seperated. "Are these really neccessary? I really doubt I could do anything to you unarmed."

Armstrong glared at him. "I'll be the judge of that. Now start talking before I personally dropkick you off the roof."

"Alright, alright. My name is Sirius Black. And I don't even know where 'here' is, much less how I got here."

Armstrong couldn't hear any deception or hesitation in his voice whatsoever, and that pissed her off as much as it relieved her. He -probably- wasn't here on purpose, which meant the chance of him being a Drachman spy was low (but still there), but they had no information about him beyond that and weren't likely to get more. "Miles," she barked, "Put him with the Elrics. Don't remove those restraints, and make sure you keep him bagged in the hallways."

"Aye, sir!"

Armstrong didn't believe in taking chances, especially when it came to total strangers appearing out of thin air on top of your fort.

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><p>"You here to let us out, Major?" asked Ed, as Miles unlocked the cell door.<p>

"Nope, here to bring you your new cellmate." There was a man with a bag over his head standing next to the major. Miles took the bag off and pushed him in, locking the cell door behind him. "The general wants you to keep an eye on him."

"I thought you didn't trust us?" said Alphonse.

"We've already ruled out you working for the enemy..."

"That's comforting," muttered Ed.

"...But we don't know a thing about him and it's too risky to lock him up on his own."

"I'm right here, you know," said the man dryly, "And I don't know whether to be insulted or flattered by you all thinking I'm some kind of security risk."

Ed decided that he liked this guy.

"You both seem to speak the same language, Fullmetal," said Miles, equally dryly, "So I'll let you deal with him." And with that he left the three Briggs inmates.

The man groaned. "Why is it that everywhere I go people think I'm the bad guy?"

"Because General Armstrong's paranoid. She already knows Al and I aren't enemy spies, but she still keeps us locked up on general principle," said Ed, "Call me Ed, this is Al. Who are you, anyway? You picked a hell of a time to show up."

"The name's Sirius Black, and before you ask, yes, my mother was crazy. Now if you don't mind me asking, where the hell am I?"

"Fort Briggs."

The name didn't ring any bells with Sirius. "Sorry, never heard of it."

Ed gave him an odd look. "The northern border of Amestris."

"Never heard of Amestris either."

"Never heard of Amestris? You're _in_ Amestris! Did you hit your head or something?" Ed was looking fairly incredulous.

Sirius was now both annoyed and confused. "No, I died. Or at least I think I did. Next thing I know I'm freezing my ass off on the roof."

At the words '_I died', _Ed and Al exchanged serious looks. Or at least Ed did. Sirius couldn't really tell with the armored man.

"Brother, do you think he's...?"

_'What does he think I am?' _thought Sirius.

"One way to find out," said Ed, "Hey, Sirius, let me see your hand for a second."

"What for?"

"Just give it." Grabbing the restraints, Ed jabbed Sirius's thumb onto the spike on Al's helmet, drawing blood.

"Ow! Shit, what the hell was that for?"

Ed and Al were both looking intently at his hand.

"What, are you checking to see if I bleed? I do, as you can see. It's even red, imagine that."

"No red sparks," said Al quietly, "And the you-know-whats heal instantly."

"Al," Ed said warningly, "_Jo'haai serkshisen, shi akay mhi tayli meh kaysh jat'verdyc._"

Sirius found himself completely left out of the loop as his two cellmates started a hushed conversation in a language he had never heard. _'Red sparks? You-know-whats? Do they know about wizards and magic? He mentioned an enemy, are they at war?'_ Then he noticed the mark on Ed's coat. He'd seen that symbol last year, on some of Dumbledore's papers. "That symbol on your coat," said Sirius, "That's a Flamel, right?"

"Yeah, why?" said Ed.

"It's just that I knew a man who worked with Flamel for a while."

Ed cocked an eyebrow. "Flamel died in 1418. Does your friend happen to be just over five hundred?"

"He's old, but I don't think he's _that _old... Wait, five hundred?"Something about those numbers struck Sirius as being off and he did the math in his head. _'Can't be...' _"What year is it?"

"1915," said Al, "Why?"

_'Shit...'_

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><p><strong><em>AN: _**_Love it? Hate it? Come on, reviews, reviews, reviews. The more reviews I get, and the longer they are (constructive criticism please) the faster more chapters will come and the better they'll be. Flames will be used to keep poor Sirius warm._

_Edit: I hope the new version was better. I mentioned in "Thou Shalt Not Kill' how Ed and Al can speak Xerxesian (Hohenheim taught Trisha, and Trisha taught Ed and Al because it reminded her of Hohenheim), I just switched it so that Amestrian=English and Xerxesian=Mando'a_

__"Jo'haai serkshisen, shi akay mhi tayli meh kaysh jat'verdyc"= "Speak xerxesian, just until we know if he's trustworthy." Just for kicks, I put that sentence into google translate. It detected Finnish, unless I wanted to translate to english, in which case it detected Spanish XD__


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